Former senator Shehu Sani has responded to UK Conservative politician Kemi Badenoch after she stated she no longer identifies as Nigerian and has not renewed her Nigerian passport in over two decades.
Mrs Badenoch, who currently serves as the UK’s secretary of state for business and trade, made the remarks while speaking on the Rosebud podcast by Gyles Brandreth.
Although born in the UK, Badenoch spent part of her childhood in Nigeria and the US before returning to the UK at 16.
She explained that despite her Nigerian ancestry, she no longer considers herself Nigerian by identity.
“I’m Nigerian through ancestry, by birth, despite not being born there because of my parents but by identity, I’m not really,” she said.
The 44-year-old further revealed that she has not renewed her Nigerian passport since the early 2000s and had to apply for a visa when she last visited Nigeria after her father’s death.
Responding on his X page on Saturday, Shehu Sani wrote, “Your name is still ‘Kemi’ and you don’t want to identify as Nigerian, that’s ok. Just bring back our name. You can change to ‘Kimberly’ or Kim Kardashian.”
Badenoch said her parents sent her back to the UK in 1996, believing she had no future in Nigeria due to its political and economic instability.
“I remember never quite feeling that I belonged there,” she said.
The senior Tory has previously come under fire for her negative remarks about her experience growing up in Nigeria.
In 2023, she described it as a time of “fear and insecurity” marred by political corruption, a comment that drew a sharp reaction from Nigeria’s Vice President Kashim Shettima, who accused her of denigrating her roots.
